What’s happening: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will soon require certain facility types to electronically report COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus information through the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).
What else to know: The NHSN’s new Hospital Respiratory Data (HRD) module is currently available, and reporting is mandatory starting Nov. 1. Facilities are required to report either weekly or annually depending on their facility type.
The following facility types are required to report respiratory data to NHSN weekly (by Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. (PT) for the previous Sunday–Saturday):
- Short-term acute care hospitals (including Medicaid-only short-term acute care hospitals)
- Long-term care hospitals
- Critical access hospitals
- Oncology hospitals (including cancer hospitals exempt from reporting to the Medicare inpatient prospective payment system)
- Children’s hospitals (including Medicaid-only children’s hospitals)
- Indian health services hospitals (also tribal hospitals, Medicare-participating)
The following facility types are required to report annually, beginning January 2025:
- Freestanding inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) (including Medicaid-only rehabilitation hospitals)
- Freestanding inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPFs) (including Medicaid-only psychiatric hospitals)
- CMS-certified IRF units (IRF within a hospital; distinct-part units)
- CMS-certified IPF units (IPF within a hospital; distinct-part units)
The Hospital Respiratory Data NHSN web page has been updated with a new upload template, new analytic resources and references guides, and other additional resources.
